Mighty Paw Smart Bell Review – Not your Average Potty Training Dog Doorbell
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Have you ever tried a potty training doggy doorbell to teach your puppy to alert you when he needs to go outside?
Most dog doorbells we’ve seen are simple jingle bells attached to a tether then hung onto a door knob…booorrriiinnng!
If that’s what you think of when someone says “dog doorbell” then today you’re in for a treat! Get ready for our Mighty Paw Smart Bell Review!
UPDATE: This post was originally published on MyDogLikes on June 22nd, 2018. We recently updated and republished here on PuppyInTraining.com.
How does your dog let you know when he needs to go outside?
Do they bark and make it clear, or stand silently near the door (like our Charlie)?
This may not be a big deal in some household configurations, but in our home, the back door is not visible from our main living space.
This means that occasionally we just happen to come across poor Charlie waiting by the door to be let out!
Why didn’t he try to tell us, we always wonder!
Or did he and we just didn’t pick up on his cues?
Either way, we are very excited at the potential to avoid this guilty feeling in the future with a new product from our friends at Mighty Paw!
Introducing the Smart Bell Dog Doorbell
The Smart Bell is a wireless doggy doorbell that is activated with a gentle touch so that your dog can easily let you know when nature calls.
MightyPaw was kind enough to send one our way and sponsor this post so that we could share this awesome product with you!
How Does it Work?
The Smart Bell consists of 2 components – an activator and a receiver.
Wireless Doorbell Activator Button shown with 3M adhesive strip
The activator is the “button” that your dog will press and should be placed near whichever door in your home that you typically let your dogs out.
This piece “installs” in seconds using only a 3M strip and does not require power to operate! It is very easy to engage the button thus suitable for all sizes of dogs.
When purchasing you can choose whether you would like 1 or 2 of these components with your order.
A second may be great for larger houses with multiple exits or one can also be placed on the exterior of your home so that your dog can let you know when they would like to come back in.
Receiver with standard plug in the back
The receiver is where you will hear the tone whenever the button has been pressed. This piece is plugged into a standard outlet and works up to 1,000 ft. from the activator!
Underneath the indented portion above is a light that allows you to visually see when the switch has been activated in addition to the audible cue.
On the side of the receiver you will also notice 2 buttons – one to adjust the volume and one to adjust the chime tone.
Now that you know how it works, you may be wondering why you can’t just train your dog to bark?
Well, you could – but barking unprompted can be a somewhat abstract concept to teach, and quite frankly doing so in the house just doesn’t seem to be in some dogs’ nature.
As we mentioned above Charlie would wait patiently (and silently) for a VERY long time before resorting to a bark. His older brother Harley was the same way.
Furthermore, sudden barks can be quite startling and you probably don’t want to be disturbing your entire household or neighborhood at all hours of the day!
Plus, if you have children at home (like us), you know just how stressful those errant baby-waking barks can be!
Another common way dogs notify their owners it’s time to go out is by scratching the door.
Just like with the bark their are some definite drawbacks to scratching the door most notably the damage that your door eventually endures over time.
Yep, Colby had one of his dogs scratch through his screen door in short order.
Features of the Mighty Paw Smart Bell 2.0
- Wireless (No need for an outlet nearby your door)
- Easy to Use (Only requires .75 lbs of force to activate)
- 1,000 ft. range
- 4 Volume Levels
- 38 Different Tones
- 100% Money Back Guarantee
So What Did We Think? (Our Smart Bell Review)
The Smart Bell comes in a small rectangular box complete with all the mounting hardware needed for installation.
We chose to attach the activator with the included 3M strips, but drywall anchors and screws are also supplied.
To get started using your new dog doorbell you simply need to slap up an activator and plug in the receiver.
Since we will be moving soon (more on that later) we decided to put ours right onto the glass of our sliding door where we figured it would be easier to remove when the time comes.
Mighty Paw recommends a height of around 20″ from the floor (depending on your dogs size of course) but we decided to put ours a bit higher because we wanted Charlie to use his nose rather than his paw to push the button.
This is because he is a pro at “target” and we figured it could be easily adapted to this situation.
Plus – he doesn’t need any more incentive for giving paw – which he does relentlessly!
Next we plugged in the receiver several rooms away and to our surprise the system worked perfectly right away!
Seriously – what tech product doesn’t have some amount of frustrating troubleshooting?!!
While we loved the concept of the Smart Bell, to be honest we were a bit unsure if we could actually get Charlie to use it
Thankfully, training your dog to use a dog doorbell was simpler than I had anticipated and Mighty Paw has some great tips on an instructional sheet included in the box.
TRAINING TIP: If your dog knows the “touch” or “target” command using their nose, this can be easily applied to using a doorbell for dogs!
Charlie was very interested in the Smart Bell right away and he got the idea of pressing the button in no time at all.
As soon as the button is pressed, you will hear a tone from the receiver and see a blue light.
There are more than 3 dozen tones to choose from and 4 volume settings, so you can pick your warning to be quiet and subtle or loud and impossible to miss!
Now that Charlie is getting the hang of pressing the button, we are working on pairing that action with being let outside.
We will update this post in a few weeks to let you know how he is doing!
Why My Dog Likes the Mighty Paw Smart Bell
First things first, we were very impressed with the quality and ease of use.
This device worked right away with no troubleshooting whatsoever.
Ever since we have started using the doggy doorbell I keep thinking of other scenarios where it would be particularly helpful…
- The Smart Bell is the perfect tool for housebreaking or dog potty training.
- It would also be great for those dogs that have no problem letting their owners know when they need to go out – but they do so in a destructive way. For instance we know a dog that gets pretty slap happy with their paw when they would like to go outside. This action has caused significant damage to the wall and trim around the exterior door. They have also managed to tear through several screen doors in the Summer time! A wireless doorbell like the Smart Bell would be perfect in this case – where the dog can be taught to hit the button instead of the wall or screen to go outside!
- Lastly, the light flash on the receiver would make this very helpful to those who may be hard of hearing.
Want to try out the Mighty Paw Smart Bell!
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